The prior art includes a variety of electronic and computer-based tools for vehicle maintenance, diagnosis, repair, and inspection. These tools allow service technicians (and, to some extent, owners) to efficiently and more effectively troubleshoot, maintain, and repair vehicles. In this regard, virtual reality and augmented reality applications have been developed for use with servicing and maintaining vehicles. An augmented reality application uses a forward facing camera and a display element of a portable or mobile electronic device (e.g., a smartphone or a tablet computer), and provides information to the user that enhances or otherwise supplements the image or video content rendered on the display. The supplemental information provided by the augmented reality application may be text data, image data, video data, graphical indicators, and/or audio information that relates to a part, component, or repair procedure that involves the vehicle.
Conventional augmented reality applications that are used for vehicle maintenance, however, suffer from various shortcomings. For example, conventional augmented reality applications that are designed for vehicle maintenance assume that the user has already determined or chosen a task or a procedure to be performed. Thereafter, the augmented reality application serves as an enhanced “how to” that provides instructions to the user. Unfortunately, conventional augmented reality applications designed for vehicle maintenance do not assist in the diagnosis or troubleshooting of problems onboard the vehicle, nor do they provide guidance or recommendations related to vehicle diagnosis.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a system and methodology for diagnosing and maintaining a vehicle using augmented reality technology. In addition, it is desirable to have methodology that supports active diagnostic communication between a mobile user device, one or more subsystems onboard a vehicle, and a solutions database system for purposes of supporting augmented reality based procedures that relate to the vehicle. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.